Terry Shaw-led consortium buys Canberra’s Campbell sites for $63.7m

Terry Shaw acquired the five sites with the ‘substantial’ backing of Asian investors.
Photo: Jamila Toderas

by
Larry Schlesinger

A consortium led by ACT developer
Terry Shaw
bought all five sites in the Campbell master-planned development in inner Canberra at auction on Wednesday for a total $63.75 million.

The auction was marketed as the ­biggest land sale in Canberra since the global financial crisis and lived up to its hype, with the properties selling well above pre-auction expectations of around $40 million to $45 million.

Mr Shaw acquired the five sites through a new Canberra-based development vehicle called SHL Developments with the “substantial" backing of Asian investors.

SHL Developments is a separate business from Mr Shaw’s well­established Englobo development business, which has completed more than $1 billion worth of housing projects in Canberra to date.

The five sites – just a short distance from the Canberra CBD – have master­plan approval for residential, retail and commercial uses, plus a boutique hotel, with a potential end value of around $300 million.

The vendor was the ACT government’s Land Development Agency.

Mr Shaw told The Australian Financial Review he expected to start marketing apartments early next year.

“It’s a nationally significant site with the potential for 500 apartments to be delivered over the next four to seven years," Mr Shaw said.

The strong result bodes well for other LDA land sales, with two blocks in Kingston Foreshore due to be ­auctioned shortly.

The five Campbell sites, some with frontages on to Constitution Avenue, have a total land area of 6.4 hectares.

They range in size from 2095 square metres to 7020 square metres.

The consortium paid $15 million for the largest site, with capacity for 205 dwellings. It paid $13.5 million for a 5719-square-metre site with capacity for 103 dwellings, including a hotel, and $14.5 million for a 4257-square-metre site with capacity for 110 dwellings, including a hotel.

Two smaller sites with the ability to develop 110 dwellings in total sold for $9.75 million and $11 million.

Mr Morella said Campbell was superbly located just a few minutes from the city centre. “Any development on the site would provide great outlook from every direction, whether that be towards the lake, up to Mt Ainslie, over the landscaped park or the city. We’re also very confident that developers who purchase the land and build the right product will have a very successful outcome."